On Sunday afternoon I met with a group of young adults to talk about the Christian understanding of work. It’s an important topic!
Very often people don’t think about it – even those who have a deep faith. They just go to work and get on with it; and perhaps they bring it to prayer when they are about to lose their job, or when they are seeking a new one. But not much more reflection than that. Or they ‘over-Christianise’ work, and think that as Christians they ought to be doing something that is ‘holy’ (which is half-true), which usually means something that is in the charitable sector or in one of the caring professions – and if they are not, they end up feeling guilty and a bit inadequate about their more mundane job.
So what is the meaning of work for a Christian?
A couple of paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church are very helpful (2427-8):
Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another. Hence work is a duty: “If any one will not work, let him not eat.” Work honours the Creator’s gifts and the talents received from him.
It can also be redemptive. By enduring the hardship of work in union with Jesus, the carpenter of Nazareth and the one crucified on Calvary, man collaborates in a certain fashion with the Son of God in his redemptive work. He shows himself to be a disciple of Christ by carrying the cross, daily, in the work he is called to accomplish. Work can be a means of sanctification and a way of animating earthly realities with the Spirit of Christ.
In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labour stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work.
Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life and that of his family, and of serving the human community.
So there are a number of different motives for human work, different meanings, and they all have their place in the divine plan. One is not more ‘holy’ than another. It’s worth putting them into a more systematic list, and then seeing what each of them means for one’s own job – whatever it is.
Why get up in the morning? Why go to work? Here is the list. We work: (1) to earn money so that we can live and so that we can support our family; (2) to share in God’s work of creation through what we are actually doing; (3) as a way of serving others or contributing to the good of others – directly or indirectly; (4) to honour God by using our gifts and talents and fulfilling our potential; (5) as a way of bringing the Spirit of Christ to bear on ordinary life; (6) as an opportunity for us to grow in holiness; and (7) as a way of sharing in the redemptive work of Christ, above all by accepting the suffering and hardship of work.
Notice how the theology here is both idealistic and realistic at the same time. There is the nitty-gritty of simply needing some cash so that we and our family can live – and that is a good thing, not to be despised. There is the idealism of sharing in God’s creative and redemptive work, of fulfilling our potential, of serving others, etc. But there is also the realism that work is often hard and at many levels unfulfilling, yet it still has a meaning – as an opportunity to grow in virtue and offer up our difficulties to the Father in a spirit of sacrifice and faith.
What’s missing? Perhaps something about how we work, often, simply because we enjoy it (perhaps this comes under ‘fulfilling our potential’), or because we like being with people, or because we have a vision or passion for what we are doing, or because our parents, for example, have pushed us into following a certain career path. Maybe these extra ideas fit into the main list somehow.
And notice how many questions it raises. How do we know what job to take (if indeed we have a choice at all)? What if we can’t find any work? What if our work is destructive (morally? culturally? environmentally?) rather than creative? What if we are not using our talents, but apparently wasting them? What if the work is so hard or degrading that it becomes a form of injustice or oppression? What if we are required to be involved in wrongdoing or illegality – directly or indirectly? Or if we know about others at our workplace who are involved in such things? Is it wrong to be ambitious? Is it wrong to want to do better than others in order to succeed? What if the culture of work is damaging our relationships, our family life, our ability to live our faith? And a thousand other questions – many of which we discussed on Sunday.
I’m not going to try to answer them all here! Maybe there is material for some future posts here…
Bridges and Tangents 
Such interesting thoughts! thank you Fr Stephen. As someone who does work in a Church job (catechetical coordinator) my experience of work is probably different from most people’s (although with the same difficulties and frustrations that all work brings). However, my experience within our parish is that there is a strong & healthy sense among people that you do not have to work in a charitable or traditionally vocational job for it to be Christian work. With a few exceptions perhaps, all professional fields need Christians working in them, to be the presence of the Church and of Christ in a very normal and quite hidden way. Think of all those people who would not come into contact with Christians if it weren’t for Christians working in all kinds of jobs. This is our role as lay people, to be the presence of Christ in the world.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts! As to why get up in the morning, I should add an (8), which is that getting up is the only way to be able to enjoy the wonderful pleasure of getting back to bed in the evening.
Which is not altogether devoid of theological meaning, I dare say. Isn’t work connected to rest in some profound sense? Though I can’t remember exactly the thought, I read something beautiful about this in a work by Jean Daniélou, Bible et liturgie. The chapter is about the institution of the sabbath. There has been a discussion in early Christianity (and even in pre-christian judaism) about the proper signification of the sabbath. The idea was that it was impossible to stick to a litteral interpretation of the sabbatical rest. Something deeper, more spiritual, was intended. Some thought that the real rest was cessation of sin. But Christ, in his discussion about the sabbath, goes further: true rest is only for the after-life, it is an eschatological reality. While on earth, He says that he is at work, as is His father: which seems to contradict the well-known verse saying that God rested on the seventh day.
God will only rest in the world to come, when sin and sorrow and pain have disapeared. Meanwhile He is at work, and so is His son. And so are we to be, provided that we strive to make our work a spiritual offering, a participation in the everlasting liturgy which is God’s work on earth and heaven.
Sorry, I sort of got off my way (didn’t mean to be doign the preaching, only to do the “keep in touch” thing!. But it was so lovely to see you yesterday).